No motive yet in killing of North Texas D.A. and wife

1of 3Kaufman County DA Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found shot to death in their home.

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3of 3CORRECTS LOCATION OF BYRNES TO SECOND FROM LEFT INSTEAD OF CENTER - Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes, second from left, speaks at a news conference, Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Kaufman, Texas. On Saturday, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were murdered in their home. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)Photo: Mike Fuentes, Associated Press

Authorities and residents in Kaufman County expressed alarm and disgust Sunday at the bold attack that left the district attorney and his wife dead in an apparent home invasion, just two months after an assistant prosecutor was slain at the courthouse.

But while they mourned Mike and Cynthia McLelland and planned for tighter security for other county officials, investigators were still hesitant to publicly declare a connection between the cases.

“I can't say that. No, we have nothing indicating that for sure,” Sheriff David Byrnes said.

The shootings appeared to be premeditated, well-orchestrated and anything but a random burglary that went bad, said a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Cynthia McLelland's body was found near the front door, and it appeared she had answered the door when the killers arrived, the official said.

Two officials said Mike McLelland's body was found toward the rear of the house. He was dressed in pajamas.

Both were shot more than once, apparently by a large-caliber assault-style rifle.

“They found the bodies and a lot of shell casings,” the official said.

“It's a bad deal,” the official said. “This is brazen. It's revenge. You don't go in there and do the stuff that's been done if it's not revenge motivated.”

Authorities believe the couple died late Friday or early Saturday, the official said. One of the McLellands' children couldn't contact them Saturday evening and asked a friend to check on them, the official said.

Neighbors said they thought they might have heard gunshots early Saturday but dismissed the sounds as thunder because a storm was rolling through the area.

Some were shaken but still trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy Sunday afternoon.

“Just to think Friday afternoon we were cleaning the house and watching TV, and there's a murder happening across the street,” said Donna Hutcheson, 46. “It's crazy.”

Hutcheson's husband, Cliff, 49, said he feels less safe now even though he knows the McLellands were specifically targeted for attack.

“We don't have a gun, but I think we may have to go buy one now,” said Hutcheson, a high school wrestling and football coach.

Another neighbor, Yvonne Whalen, 45, added, “Most of us homeowners, the first thing we do is go grab our guns and put them by the front door.”

For about a month after the slaying of the assistant prosecutor, Mark Hasse, sheriff's deputies regularly parked in the McLelland driveway, said Sam Rosander, another nearby neighbor. But in recent weeks, that level of security had dropped.

After Hasse was killed, McLelland said he began carrying a gun everywhere he went, including when walking his dog. He said he took extra care when answering the front door.

McLelland, 63, he was an experienced attorney and prosecutor and had served 23 years in the Army earlier in his career.

“I'm ahead of everybody else because, basically, I'm a soldier,” he said less than two weeks ago.

Investigators had been looking into the possibility that Hasse was gunned down by the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a prison-based white supremacist gang. But no definitive connections had been made.

McLelland, elected district attorney in 2010, said Hasse hadn't prosecuted cases against white supremacists but that his office handled several and that those gangs had a strong presence in North Texas.

But he said he had struggled to understand what might have led to Hasse's death.

“There's an incredible outpouring of rage and surprise, and everybody wants to do something to help out with this because it's such an anomaly,” he said. “This doesn't happen. The bad guys, they don't hate the prosecutors. They know that we're doing our job just like they are. It's so completely out of the ordinary and so strange that people are having a hard time getting their head around it because this is not business as usual.”

But Oliver “Buck” Revell, a security consultant and former head of the FBI office in Dallas, which includes Kaufman County, said he thinks a methamphetamine organization could be behind the deadly violence.

The Aryan Brotherhood has been involved in lucrative methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution throughout Texas.

“It's been known for quite some time that Kaufman County has a huge problem in the drug area and methamphetamine in particular,” said Revell, who is not involved in the current investigation. “This bears the marks of an organized criminal enterprise, and I think the bottom of it is going to be methamphetamine.”